Color Theory 2 - Value Again

After that last color theory post on value I decided that I’d like to add a few more examples to the value discussion.

First I want to talk about the value of color. Just because you have the darkest shade of a color doesn’t mean that it’s a dark value.

 

In this photo I have pulled the darkest value of the rainbow colors. It’s easy to tell that the blue and purple are dark values and the yellow and orange are light values. But what about the red and green?

Of course they are really both medium values but which is darker? If I had fabrics this close in value I might convert them to gray to see the true value. This is where my second lesson comes in.

Using your photo editor to determine value isn’t always right.

I know I talked about using black and white images to check the comparative value of fabrics. My Photoshop software has several methods for converting a photo to black and white. Here’s the above photo converted using different filters:

 

This setting is the default for the “Enhance>Convert to Black and White” option. It’s called Scenic Landscape and converts the green to being a darker value than the red.

 

This setting is “Vivid Landscape” but I have a reall problem with the way it converts the red to being so much of a lighter value than the green. That's just not right.

 

One of my favorite settings to use is Infrared. It makes the darks as dark as possible and the lights as light as possible and you get to focus on the medium values.

 

Another way to get a black and white conversion is to use “Image>Mode>Grayscale”. I think this setting actually gave me the best comparative value of all the fabrics.

Confused? That wasn’t my goal. What I wanted to do is to tell you not to blindly rely on what your computer does to your photo. If it doesn’t seem right it probably isn’t! Try again with different settings. Test your software with photos of fabric that you feel you “know” and then find the setting in your software that gives you the right results. Then you will be more confident relying on the software when you have more difficult value puzzles to solve.

 

Comments

[Leslie McNeil]

Wow. That is a terrific lesson! thanks so much Vicki for sharing it with us.

[sarah]

Hi Vickie - my camera has a BW setting. How accurate do you find this compared to multiple filters? I have generally just used the camera setting but now I am wondering if that's best...
Thanks!

[Gabriela Divine]

Vicki - this was a fantastic tutorial. Your photos and explanations really hit their mark. You have a special knack for clearly expressing yourself and this post is a perfect example. Thank you for having taken the time to share this valuable information. I thoroughly enjoyed your post.

[Debbie]

This is very interesting, Vicki. Thanks. I've only ever used grayscale. Didn't even know about the other ones.

[Connie]

Wonderful suggestions, can't wait to try this out. Thanks.

[Libby Fife]

I wish more quilters paid attention to this. Don't forget too to mention that value is relative; saturation (chroma) of the hue is important; and temperature can also affect our perception of what stands out and what doesn't. Backing away from the piece and squinting helps you see things as a whole-contrast dissolves down to just some basic stuff-light, med, and dark. The best two tools I have are my eyes-squinting is everything and I also use my ruby plastic card when I am out in the field.

Great post-I hope people use the info.

[twitter.com/CandiedFabrics]

Wow, very cool. I've never spent much time figuring out all the different ways to convert, the grayscale was the first one I found and i've not done any more! Isn't it neat how close in value the green and orange are???